Painkiller, heroin crisis hits midstate: Are you struggling with addiction?

Our first story
on the region's growing heroin crisis was published Wednesday. Told through Jeff and Vickie Sherrick of Hummelstown, whose daughter died of addiction to painkillers then heroin. The story captured a snapshot of the personal devastation that the drug can cause on individuals, their familiar and their communities.

As writer David Wenner noted, this is a problem that's largely avoiding the inner city. "
A report from the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association found
that in heroin-related deaths where the victim's race was reported, 91 percent were white," Wenner wrote. "In cases where the gender was reported, 73 percent were men and 27 percent were women. Regarding geography, midstate residents affected by heroin addiction tell of a thriving heroin presence in communities far beyond Harrisburg, including Palmyra, Millerstown in northern Perry County, and Dover in York County, to name just a few.

Indeed, Pennsylvania has become not only a route for heroin that comes into this country, but also a destination. Wenner noted that
Pennsylvania recently rose from 14th to seventh place
in the United States for its drug-overdose death rate, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are from 2011. Pennsylvania had 2,289 overdose deaths, or 18.3 deaths per 100,000 people.

"This is more dangerous than guns," Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said several months back. "We lock up guns but we don't lock up medicine cabinets."

While we will continue to report daily on the casualties of heroin addiction and the actions that are being done to adjust the laws and regulations that are applied to the drug, this series of stories through the month of October will attempt to hit home the damage that addiction causes.

To do so, we're looking to talk to individuals who are personally affected by heroin use. If you are interested in talking about it, contact editor Paul Vigna directly at
pvigna@pennlive.com
.

Please be aware that nothing about you will be published without your permission.

Are you seeking treatment for a drug addiction? Call the Pennsylvania Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hotline at
1-800-662-HELP
(4357) or
click here for more information
.